05-BMG-PP1 Physical Principles of Geosciences I
05-BMG-PP1-1 Physics of the Solid Earth
01-00-04-PhyNMG-V/-Ü Physics for Natural Science I
Prof. Marta Pérez-Gussinyé: gussinye@[Link]
Dr. Raghu Ram Gudipati raghuram@[Link]
GEO R 4310
Physics of the Solid Earth
Schedule
Date Class
19/10/23 Introduction in the Physics of Solid Earth
26/10/23 -
02/11/23 Introduction to plate tectonics
Seismology I: Strength, Stress, strain, Elastic behaviour and elasticity moduli, stress-strain
09/11/23
curves, yield strength
Seismology II: Seismic waves: wavelengths, periods and frequencies, types of
16/11/23
seismic waves: body and surface waves, seismic velocities, Earth’s structure
Seismology III: Huygens and Snell principles, reflection, refraction, conversion,
23/11/23
absorption, divergence, travel time curves: 2 layers and multiple layers case
Seimology IV: Phases of a seismogram, Raypaths in Earth, shadow zones, Earth´s
30/11/23
structure from travel time paths
07/12/23 Seimology V: recording of seismic waves, principles of the seismometer
14/12/23 Seismology VI: First motion, hypocenter location, seismological grids
21/12/23 Seismology VII: seismic tomography; Seismology VIII: Prediction and geohazards
11/01/24 Deformation mechanisms I: Rheology, elasticity, plasticity, viscosity
18/01/24 Deformation mechanisms II: Rheology, mantle convection
25/01/23 SUMMARY
01/02/24 EXAM
Introduction: rocks under stress
• As Earth scientists we are interested in understanding how rocks
behave under specific loads.
• In Earth Sciences loads are produced by tectonic forces such as
extension, compression and shearing and gravitational forces.
• Melting of ice-sheets and rising or drowning of sea-level also
result in loads that deform the Earth’s surface.
• We can regard the effect of these forces on the long term or in
the short term.
• In the long-term, tectonic loading and gravitational forces
result in the viscous/ductile deformation of the Earth’s interior,
including mantle convection.
• In the short-term the response to tectonic loading is elastic. This
results in propagation of elastic waves through the Earth.
• Seismology deals with the study of elastic wave propagation,
which allow us to image the deep Earth’s structure, from the
surface to its core.
Today we learn about:
Some terms and diagrams related to material
elasticity.
• What is stress?
• What is strain?
• What are material properties?
• What is elastic behaviour?
• What parameters are used to define the elastic behaviour?
What are material properties?
Material properties describe how materials react to:
• Loading : mechanical properties
• Temperature (hot/cold, e.g. melting point): thermal properties
• Electrical current: electrical properties
• …..
All these properties influence how rocks behave.
Mechanical Rock properties
Rock strength: ability to resist permanent distorsion
or total failure.
Rock stiffness: ability to resist elastic (or recoverable) shape
change.
This elastic (or recoverable) shape change occurs when a load
is first applied to a rock/material.
In this lecture we define important terms related to rock elasticity:
• Stress, strain and Stress-strain curves.
• Young’s modulus and Poission’s ratio
Elastic deformation
Elastic hape change is non-permanent and reversible.
This means that when the applied force/load is removed,
the rock/material returns to its original shape.
Loads can be applied in many different directions. It is
important to understand which are the main directions of
laoding, as this may simplify the description of the loading
state.
Modes of loading
Cables in suspension bridges
carry axial tension.
Columns in buildings carry
compression.
Beams in airplane wings carry
bending.
Shells carry internal pressures
such as those found in pressure
vessels.
Modes of loading in Geology
• Rifting produces extensional
stress on tectonic plates.
• Mountain building and oceanic
subsduction produces
compressional stress of the
plates.
• Ice sheet loading and unloading
results in plate bending.
• Carbon and hydrogen storage
generates internal pressures.
In all these examples a load is applied over a specific area.
Which impact does the load have on the rock and how can
we visualize it?
Let’s imagine a cube of rick which is being loaded
with equal and opposite forces, 𝐹, perpendicular its top and
bottom sides, which have an area, 𝐴0 . The stress in
the cube is:
𝐹 𝑁𝑒𝑤𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑠 (𝑁)
Stress = 𝜎 = 𝐴0
=
𝑚2
= 𝑃𝑎𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑠 (𝑃𝑎)
What we desribed is tensile stress
Example:
Piece of elastic (two cm portion shown in blue).
Attach a weight on one end. Hang the weight from the elastic. Blue segment has
extended considerably. When I remove the weight, it returns to its original length →
elastic behaviour
Compressive stress
Example:
Apply a weight to a marshmallow. It compress. When the weight is removed the
marshmallow springs back.
Shear stress
When we apply a force parallel to the material surface. In this situation I need three
other forces to maintain equilibrium of the solid.
𝐹𝑠 𝑁𝑒𝑤𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑠 (𝑁)
Shear Stress = 𝜏 = = = 𝑃𝑎𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑠 (𝑃𝑎)
𝐴0 𝑚2
Example: deck of playing cards:
Hydrostatic stress
When an equal stress (either tensile or compressive) is applied to all surfaces of the
solid.
Example:
Strain: tensile and compressive
In all cases the shape of the material changed in some way when the elastic stress
was applied. Strain, 𝜀, describes the change in shape of material.
Example:
𝑙𝑓 − 𝑙0 ∆𝑙
𝜀= =
𝑙0 𝑙0
Compressive stress is calculated
the same way, but
∆𝑙 is negative.
Strain: shear
Shear strain can be visualized with our deck of cards:
Example:
𝑊
𝑆ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛: 𝑡𝑎𝑛 𝛾 = ≈ 𝛾, when strain is small
𝐿
Strain: hydrostatic == Dilation 𝑉0
Change in volume created by hydrostatic stress:
𝑉 − 𝑉0
𝐷𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛: ∆=
𝑉0
𝑉
Stress- Strain curves
So we have a stress applied to a rock that responds with a given strain. Stress and
strain are related and we plot them one against the other on a stress-strain curve.
Materials respond differently to applied stress.
For example:
• Metals first strain linearly with stress, until they
reach a non-linear region of strain increase
with a peak and finally they have material
failure.
• Ceramics strain linearly with stress and then
fail.
• Elastometers have non-lienar behaviour
between stress and strain. Can reach strains of
100% of rmoe before failure.
Stress- Strain curves
While all materials react differently in the
presence of stress we can define three
regions in the stress-strain curve:
• An elastic region when we start to apply
the stress.
• Then we have a plastic region where
permanent deformation occurs.
• Finally, we have failure.
Stress- Strain curves
Let’s zoom in the elastic region of our stress-
strain curve:
• Many different materials have a linear
relationship between stress and strain for
small strains.
• This is called Hooke’s law and represent a
region of our stress-strain curve, where strain
is recoverable → non-permanent deformation.
• Hooke’s law: 𝜎 = 𝐸 .𝜀
𝜎
𝐸 = 𝑖𝑠 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔′ 𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑢𝑠
𝜀
Ealstic Moduli
𝜎
𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈′ 𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒖𝒔 = 𝐸 =
𝜀
Poisson’s ratio describes the change
in elongation in the directions
perpendicular to the applied stress:
−𝜀𝑡
𝑷𝒐𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒏′ 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐 = 𝜐=
𝜀
In tensile cases, since the cube is
𝜀𝑡
contracting in the direction
perpendicular to tension, Poisson’s
ratio is a positive number, ~1/3.
Moduli for shear and hydrostatic cases
𝜎
• Hooke’s law: 𝜎 = 𝐸 .𝜀 𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔′ 𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑢𝑠 = 𝐸 =
𝜀
𝑊
Shear strain: 𝑡𝑎𝑛 𝛾 = ≈ 𝛾, when strain
• Shear stress: 𝐿
is small
𝜏
𝑆ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑢𝑠 = 𝐺 =
𝛾
𝑃
• Hydrostatic stress:
𝑃
𝐵𝑢𝑙𝑘 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑢𝑠 = 𝐾 =
𝑉 − 𝑉0 ∆
𝐷𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛: ∆=
𝑉0
Short summary
• Stiffness is the material ability to resist elastic deformation.
• Elastic deformation is not permanent.
• Modes of loading: tensile, compression, bending, torsion and internal pressure.
• Stress is the force applied to a material, divided by the area over which the force is
applied.
Short summary
• We learned about three different stress cases:
Short summary
• Strain is the material response to stress→ We have 3 strains corresponding to the 3
stresses we defined:
Tensile Strain Compressive Strain
Shear strain Hydrostatic strain
(Dilation)
Short summary
• We can plot our strain-stress values on our stress-strain curve.
• This curve has three major regions:
• The elastic region, which has been the focus of the lecture today.
In the elastic region the deformation is recoverable.
• The plastic region, where permanent deformation occurs.
• The failure region, where failure occurs.
• The strain-stress curves are drawn for materials in tension. While other stress-strain
curves do exist and many might look quite similar, the most commonly used example
is a material that is being pulled in tension.
Short summary
• If we zoom into the elastic region we notice that many
materials follow a linear relationship.
• This linear relationship is called Hooke’s law and can be
𝜎
represented mathematically by: = 𝐸 = 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈′ 𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒖𝒔
𝜀
𝜏
• Shear modulus: 𝐺 = Shear strain: 𝑡𝑎𝑛 𝛾 =
𝑊
≈𝛾
𝛾 𝐿
𝑃 𝑉 − 𝑉0
• Bulk modulus: 𝐾 = 𝐷𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛: ∆=
∆ 𝑉0
−𝜀𝑡
• Poisson’s ratio: 𝜐 =
𝜀
Exercises
(12) Elastic Behavior of Materials — Lesson 1 – YouTube (Elastic Behavior of Materials — Lesson 1 - ANSYS Innovation Courses)
1. At the start of the lecture (see link above to video), we saw a tensile stress example using a piece
of elastic. If the blue highlighted section of the elastic had some original length of 2 cm and
stretched to a length of 3.69cm after a one-pound weight was applied, what was the (a) tensile
stress, (b) strain, and (c) Young’s Modulus of our piece of elastic? This elastic is 1mm thick and
12.7mm across.
2. At the start of the lecture (see link above to video), In the Lesson 1 video, we saw a compressive
stress example using a marshmallow. If the marshmallow had the initial dimensions shown here
and was compressed with a onepound weight to a height of 2.38 cm, what was the compressive
Young’s Modulus of our marshmallow?
3. Calculate the bulk modulus (K), the shear modulus (m) and Poisson’s ratio (n) for the lower crust,
upper mantle and lower mantle, respectively, using Eqs. (1) and (2) and the values for the P-wave
(a) and S-wave (b) velocities, and density (r) given in the following table.
(Continued)
Exercises
4. The table below gives the densities and seismic P- and S-wave velocities at various depths in the Earth.
(a) From these quantities calculate the rigidity modulus, m, bulk modulus, K, and Poisson’s ratio, n, at each depth.
(b) Discuss in your own words the information that these data give about the deep interior of the Earth.